We're about to enter the third month of the year and after last week's loaded release schedule, it appears that we're back to more of an average week of new game releases. This week's AAA title is an RPG game from Japan and we also decided to include a DLC in this week's roundup, simply because it's for a very popular game which often has over 100k PC players online, not taking console players into account.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty / This week's AAA title / Friday 3 March
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a dramatic, action-packed story of a nameless militia soldier fighting for survival in a dark fantasy version of the Later Han Dynasty where demons plague the Three Kingdoms. Players fight off deadly creatures and enemy soldiers using swordplay based on the Chinese martial arts, attempting to overcome the odds by awakening the true power from within.

Eurocom is launching the PCI Express 4.0 based Superlaptop 17.3" Nightsky TXi317 powered by Intel 12th generation i7 and i9 mobile processors. Supercharged by the latest generation HM670 Intel chipset, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 3070Ti graphics, up to 16 TB of RAID0/1/ storage and 64 GB memory, the Nightsky TXi317 delivers an impressive level of performance in a 2.6 kg lightweight laptop form factor.

"The EUROCOM Nightsky TXi317 combines Intel 12xxx series mobile processors, up to i9-12900H, with NVIDIA Geforce RTX 3080Ti or RTX 3070Ti graphics in a 17.3" laptop form factor that weighs under 2.8 kg / 6.16 lbs is a remarkable feat that our customers are extremely excited about. It offers incredible performance and mobility!" Mark Bialic, Eurocom President. The EUROCOM Nightsky TXi317 comes with Intel HM670 Chipset, enabling the fastest PCIe 4.0 for NVMe, GPUs and Thunderbolt 4.0 The EUROCOM Nightsky TXi317 superlaptop offers an extraordinary balance of customization at time of purchase, user upgrade-ability, performance and mobility. It provides powerful platform for both gamers and for creative professionals and engineers.

In President Biden's first year in office, the Biden-Harris Administration has implemented an industrial strategy to revitalize domestic manufacturing, create good-paying American jobs, strengthen American supply chains, and accelerate the industries of the future. These policies have spurred an historic recovery in manufacturing, adding 642,000 manufacturing jobs since 2021. Companies are investing in America again, bringing good-paying manufacturing jobs back home. The construction of new manufacturing facilities has increased 116 percent over last year.

Today, President Biden will sign into law the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which will build on this progress, making historic investments that will poise U.S. workers, communities, and businesses to win the race for the 21st century. It will strengthen American manufacturing, supply chains, and national security, and invest in research and development, science and technology, and the workforce of the future to keep the United States the leader in the industries of tomorrow, including nanotechnology, clean energy, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence. The CHIPs and Science Act makes the smart investments so that American to compete in and win the future.

The industry has been undergoing significant changes in computing. Application specific hardware acceleration is becoming commonplace and new memory technologies are influencing the economics of computing. To address the need for an open architecture to allow full industry participation, the OpenCAPI Consortium (OCC) was founded in 2016. The architecture that was defined allowed any microprocessor to attach to coherent user-level accelerators, advanced memories, and was agnostic to the processor architecture. In 2021, OCC announced the Open Memory Interface (OMI). Based on OpenCAPI, OMI is a serial attached near memory interface that provides low latency and high bandwidth connections for main memory.

In 2019, the Compute Express Link (CXL) Consortium was launched to deliver an industry-supported cache-coherent interconnect for processors, memory expansion, and accelerators. In 2020, the CXL and Gen-Z Consortiums announced plans to implement interoperability between their respective technologies, and in early 2022, Gen-Z transferred its specifications and assets to the CXL Consortium.

As The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 heads to President Biden's desk for his signature, following its passage in Congress, OSTP's Dr. Alondra Nelson is releasing the following statement: "The bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 is the most significant American investment in science, technology, and innovation in a generation. It will revitalize and advance U.S. leadership in science and technology, spur U.S. competitiveness and economic development, and bolster our domestic semiconductor supply chains. Most important, it will deliver opportunities for Americans all across the nation.

For working Americans, the stakes of this legislation could not be higher. Semiconductor chips power our daily lives, from the telecommunications that keep us all connected, and medical devices that keep our loved ones alive, to financial institutions that help secure our families' futures, and the computers from which millions of Americans run their businesses. They are a door to a future of innovation, progress, and economic security.

Today, during Mobile World Congress 2022, Qualcomm Incorporated President and Chief Executive Officer, Cristiano Amon highlighted how Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. is continuing to bring best-in-case experiences to enterprise PCs and drive the convergence of the PC and mobile to increase productivity, connectivity, and security from anywhere. During last month's Consumer Electronics Show, the Company announced that over 200 enterprise customers were testing or deploying Windows 11 on Snapdragon laptops and 2-in-1 devices. Today, Amon outlined how strategic relationships with Microsoft, Lenovo, and many other ecosystem leaders are helping deliver the next generation of enterprise-ready PCs, powered by Snapdragon. Utilizing its global relationships, Qualcomm Technologies continues to lead the PC industry's inevitable transition to innovative and modern solutions from the portfolio of Snapdragon compute platforms.Quotes from key collaborators that Qualcomm Technologies is working with to drive innovation for always on, always connected enterprise PCs through Snapdragon Compute Platforms can be found here.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, is thrilled to announce the achievement of a new overclocking world record for fastest memory frequency at DDR5-8888 CL88-88-88-88, in cooperation with ASUS. This amazing frequency speed was achieved by the extreme overclocker "lupin_no_musume" with G.SKILL Trident Z5 DDR5 memory, ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 APEX motherboard, and Intel Core i9-12900K processor. To see the moment this amazing overclocking world record was set, please click the following video link: https://youtu.be/OgQFbUOs6i8

DDR5-8888 CL88-88-88-88 - Pushing the Speed to the Limit
At the dawn of the DDR5 era, G.SKILL and ASUS have been constantly exploring the memory speed limitations of the latest Intel Z690 platform. Surpassing the previous DDR5-8704 world record in November 2021, a new memory frequency world record is achieved at DDR5-8888 under liquid nitrogen extreme cooling. The memory speed has been validated by CPU-Z. Please refer to the screenshot and validation link below: https://valid.x86.fr/qgvylc

The Taiwanese President, Tsai Ing-Wen, told local media that she believes that Taiwan can become self-sufficient when it comes to semiconductor equipment, although this is obviously not something that would happen overnight. A large part of why this has even been considered seems to be the current pandemic, as although Taiwan might not have suffered much from the pandemic itself, the nation has suffered when it comes to imports, as just in time production and delivery systems have broken down, which has affected most industries in Taiwan.

In 2021 Taiwanese semiconductor companies invested some NT$1 trillion (~US$36.3 billion), of which 70 percent was in equipment, according to the President, with around NT$600 billion (~US$21.8 billion) of that money being towards imported equipment. It also shows that local semiconductor equipment makers have a lot of work to do, especially if they're intending to catch up with their international competitors. The President also mentioned that the local semiconductor equipment industry grew by 28.7 percent in 2021, although it was still relatively small at NT$116.7 billion (~US$4.2 billion), but she was quoted as saying that she's 100 percent certain that Taiwan has the ability to make all semiconductor equipment the [local] industry needs.

IBM today announced its new 127-quantum bit (qubit) 'Eagle' processor at the IBM Quantum Summit 2021, its annual event to showcase milestones in quantum hardware, software, and the growth of the quantum ecosystem. The 'Eagle' processor is a breakthrough in tapping into the massive computing potential of devices based on quantum physics. It heralds the point in hardware development where quantum circuits cannot be reliably simulated exactly on a classical computer. IBM also previewed plans for IBM Quantum System Two, the next generation of quantum systems.

Quantum computing taps into the fundamental quantum nature of matter at subatomic levels to offer the possibility of vastly increased computing power. The fundamental computational unit of quantum computing is the quantum circuit, an arrangement of qubits into quantum gates and measurements. The more qubits a quantum processor possesses, the more complex and valuable the quantum circuits that it can run.

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers (Hong Kong Stock Code: 1337), today unveiled three new additions to its Productivity range with the new Pro Click Mini wireless mouse, the Pro Type Ultra wireless keyboard, and the Pro Glide XXL mouse mat. The new Pro range features multi-device wireless connectivity, extended battery life, and a quieter sound profile. Coupled with Razer's expertise in producing high-performance, durable, ergonomic hardware, the new Pro range delivers the ideal work, home office, or mobile peripherals for today's flexible workspace locations.

As people continue to work from home, high-quality keyboards and mice have become more important to increase productivity and ensure a smoother, faster workflow. The new Pro range from Razer features the latest in hardware and software technology, honed from Razer's years of experience producing pro-level gaming devices. Combining industry-leading ergonomic designs with modern, sleek styling and high-performance gaming technologies, the Pro range delivers the comfort, battery-life and precision to enable users to win at work.

VMware today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Rangarajan (Raghu) Raghuram as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors, effective June 1, 2021. An industry veteran, Raghuram is a strategic business leader who currently holds the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Products and Cloud Services at VMware.

"I am thrilled to have Raghu step into the role of CEO at VMware. Throughout his career, he has led with integrity and conviction, playing an instrumental role in the success of VMware," commented Michael Dell, chairman of the VMware Board of Directors. "Raghu is now in position to architect VMware's future, helping customers and partners accelerate their digital businesses in this multi-cloud world."

Today Epic Games announced that it completed a $1 billion round of funding, which will allow the company to support future growth opportunities. Epic's equity valuation is now $28.7 billion.

This round includes an additional $200M strategic investment from Sony Group Corporation, which builds on the already close relationship between the two companies and reinforces their shared mission to advance the state of the art in technology, entertainment, and socially-connected online services. Other investment partners include Appaloosa, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, GIC, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Park West, KKR, AllianceBernstein, Altimeter, Franklin Templeton and Luxor Capital. Epic continues to have only a single class of common stock outstanding and CEO Tim Sweeney remains the controlling shareholder of the company.

Qualcomm Incorporated today announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously selected Cristiano Amon to succeed Steve Mollenkopf as CEO, effective June 30, 2021. Mollenkopf informed the Board of his decision to retire as CEO following 26 years with the Company. Amon, who has worked at Qualcomm since 1995, is currently President of the Company. Mollenkopf will continue his employment with the Company as a strategic advisor for a period of time.

Mollenkopf, 52, became CEO in March of 2014. He began his career as an engineer and, for nearly three decades, has helped define and lead Qualcomm's strategy and technology roadmap. His work helped propel smartphones into the mainstream and made Qualcomm a leader in 3G, 4G and now 5G, and he also oversaw the expansion into new industry segments such as the Internet of Things (IoT), RF Front End and Automotive. He was also instrumental in the Company's rise as a smartphone technology supplier. In addition, Mollenkopf successfully guided the Company through a number of extraordinary circumstances and challenges and begins the CEO transition process with the Company stabilized and well-positioned to continue to grow and drive value.

SiFive, Inc., the leading provider of commercial RISC-V processor IP and silicon solutions, today announced it raised $61 million in a Series E round led by SK hynix, joined by new investor Prosperity7 Ventures, with additional funding from existing investors, Sutter Hill Ventures, Western Digital Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Intel Capital, Osage University Partners, and Spark Capital.

"Global demand for storage and memory in the data center is increasing as AI-powered business intelligence and data processing growth continues", said Youjong Kang, VP of Growth Strategy, SK hynix. "SiFive is well-positioned to grow with opportunities created from data center, enterprise, storage and networking requirements for workload-focused processor IP."

The United States Department of Defense (DOD) Friday awarded a USD $10 billion contract to Microsoft to build the JEDI Cloud (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure), a massive piece of connected IT infrastructure that seeks greater electronic integration within the U.S. Military, and prepare it for emerging forms of warfare. According to the New York Times, Amazon was the front-runner for the contract, having executed similar infrastructure contracts for the CIA. The NYT comments that President Donald Trump's spat with The Washington Post, a paper owned by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, could have affected Amazon's bid. Some of the biggest American cloud companies participated in the bidding, which include Amazon AWS, Microsoft, IBM, Google, and Oracle.

NZXT announced the acquisition of San Francisco-based Forge, a pioneer in creating tools for capturing and sharing PC gameplay. Both companies were founded with the goal of developing the PC as the most immersive, most social gaming platform.

Under the terms of the acquisition which closed on July 3, 2018, Forge's staff is joining the NZXT team in a variety of engineering and management roles. Johnny Hou, NZXT's founder, will continue in his current role as President and CEO. Jared Kim, founder of Forge, will assume the role of Vice President, Software at NZXT. Financial details of the deal are not available.

US President Donald Trump blocked the potentially-$117 billion Broadcom-Qualcomm merger through an executive order. The White House considered damning observations by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which had been studying potential national security implications of this merger. "There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that Broadcom Ltd. [by acquiring Qualcomm] might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States," wrote President Trump in the order.

Broadcom expressed shock and disbelief over the order. The company, in a statement, said that it "strongly disagrees that its proposed acquisition of Qualcomm raises any national security concerns." Qualcomm, meanwhile, battened down the hatches for any press comments. The American chipmaker had been wrestling an increasingly Broadcom-slanted board that was all but ready to sell the company to Broadcom at an undervalued price. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, the Trump administration has shot down ten similar deals since it came to power, in which foreign companies - overwhelmingly Chinese in national origin - had attempted buy out American high-technology firms. Californian Intel is still in the foray to swallow Broadcom, as CFIUS doesn't concern itself with American companies buying out foreign firms.

Hype Trains are bad. They are not just bad because a random frog on the internet told you so either, they are bad because they build upon themselves to the point that you would believe a random frog on the internet if he said something beneficial about your chosen product.

It's not just technology either. It can happen in politics, religion, whatever. But they are bad, and not to be trusted. They aren't just bad for humanity and all that, they are bad for the products they represent. Yes, they actually hurt what they are hyping. Ryzen didn't benefit from the hypetrain anymore than Trump benefited from the "Trump Train." Allow me to explain (and please, put the foam back in your mouth for me uttering "Trump" in a tech article. That's the only time I promise).

By now, we've all seen, or at least heard, about Intel CEO's Brian Kraznich Fab 42 announcement (done from the Oval Office, no less). It was to be a joint press conference to announce a highly impactful investment on U.S. soil, which also turned into some welcome PR for Intel, and got the CEO some face time with the President.

It has to be said though, that hailing this as a Trump administration win is simply politics doing its best: spinning the truth for its own benefit. I say this because the original announcement for the construction of this Arizona fab was done way back in 2011, with then Intel CEO Paul Otellini breaking the news that they would spend $5 billion on the plant during the Obama Administration. Construction started that year, with overall expectation for its completion being somewhere around 2013. Cue the usual delays, and enter 2013's 10% decline of the PC market, and Intel did what any sensible company would do in the wake of lower expected volume of shipments (and respectively lower production needs) - they postponed the opening of the factory, indefinitely, instead choosing to improve manufacturing capability of its then already-operational fabs. So, the factory wasn't announced because of President Trump's policies and overall government acumen, nor is it probably going to be finished by the time his first term ends.

Today Intel Corporation's CEO, Brian Krzanich, announced a series of leadership and organizational changes in a message to employees. Intel President Renée James informed the board that she will be stepping down as President of Intel to pursue an external CEO role. She has agreed to stay at Intel until January in order to transition the Executive Office. In connection with today's news, James today distributed an employee message about her plans.

In addition, other leadership and organizational changes that are being made to streamline operations and better position Intel for growth include: Arvind Sodhani, President of Intel Capital, will retire in January after a distinguished 35-year career with the company. President of Mergers and Acquisitions Wendell Brooks will take an expanded role to also become President of Intel Capital. Merging these teams under one leader will allow clear focus across all investment opportunities for Intel.

On July 1, the Intel Security organization - formerly the independent McAfee division - was formally integrated into Intel operations under the leadership of General Manager Chris Young. This integration will deliver better technologies for our customers and more effective operations that enable Intel Security to advance the state of security across the industry.

Acer announces the appointment of Jason Chen as Corporate President and CEO from January 1st next year. Taking the important role of leading Acer through its corporate transformation, Chen is currently the senior vice president of Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The resolution was approved by Acer's board of directors today.

Acer Chairman Stan Shih said, "Jason is an excellent manager with extensive management experience and proven execution capability. Acer's search committee met with him on several occasions for in-depth dialogue and exchange of views. We consider him to be the ideal executive to lead our transformation with his wealth of new thinking, international perspective, and willingness to face this challenge. Moreover, he shares the consensus on our strategy and development for Acer's future."

Acer announces that its Board of Directors has elected the company founder, Stan Shih, as Chairman and interim Corporate President with immediate effect. Shih shall serve as Acer's Chairman until the end of his term on the Board. Chairman & CEO J.T. Wang and Corporate President Jim Wong have both stepped down in light of the company's recent performance. The Company will hand over the Corporate Presidency to the appropriate candidate as soon as possible.

Despite their resignations, reluctantly accepted by the Board, both J.T. Wang and Jim Wong have committed to remain with Acer as advisors to ensure a smooth transition and transfer of the management team and to help the company back to stability.

On the 17th of July, Micron Technology announced the appointment of Warren East to the company's Board of Directors, effective immediately. East served as CEO of ARM Holdings PLC from October 2001 to July 1, 2013. "We are extremely pleased to welcome Warren to our Board of Directors," said Micron CEO Mark Durcan. "Warren transformed ARM during his tenure as CEO, and we are confident his contributions will strengthen our board."

East, who also serves as director of De La Rule PLC, joined ARM in 1994 and later became Vice President of Business Operations. Within three years, he was appointed to the Board as Chief Operating Officer. Prior to ARM, East was with Texas Instruments. "I appreciate the opportunity to serve with the Micron team," said East. "With the acquisition of Elpida, Micron is well-positioned to be a growing, dynamic leader in semiconductor memory and a critical contributor to the success of customers in the storage, mobile and computing markets." East is a chartered engineer, Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute. He earned bachelor and master degrees in Engineering Science from Oxford University and an MBA and honorary doctorate from Cranfield University.

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced it has appointed Thomas Rampone as senior vice president of the company's solid state drive (SSD) business, which includes SanDisk's Enterprise Storage Solutions (ESS) and Client Storage Solutions (CSS) organizations. He will report to Sanjay Mehrotra, SanDisk's president and CEO.

Rampone joined SanDisk from Intel where he served for over 27 years in various engineering and executive roles. Most recently, Rampone was vice president and general manager of Intel's Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group where he was responsible for all of Intel's flash memory business including technology and product development, operations and marketing. Previously, Rampone served as vice president and general manager for Intel's Channel Platforms Group and the Desktop Boards Business.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:MU), one of the world's leading providers of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced an industry first with high-volume availability of its 45-nanometer (nm) Phase Change Memory (PCM) for mobile devices, featuring 1-gigabit (Gb) PCM plus 512-megabit (Mb) LPDDR2 in a multichip package. As the first company in the world currently offering PCM solutions in volume production, Micron is providing chipset vendors, enablers, and handset manufacturers with a proven product that meets the expanding needs of today's wireless market and paves the way for enhanced features and capabilities.

PCM provides enhanced boot time, simplifies software development and boosts performance with overwrite capability. It also provides very low power consumption and extremely high reliability. In addition, the design-optimizing shared interface between LPDDR2 and PCM is fully compliant with JEDEC industry standards.